Judge causes outrage for not sending abusive husband to jail because wife is too 'intelligent'

By Natalie Cornish| 3 years ago

Cricketer Mustafa Bashir forced his ex-wife to drink bleach after attacking her with a cricket bat, but he was spared jail in the UK partly because the judge deemed her too "intelligent" and "not vulnerable" enough.

He repeatedly beat her, forced her to take tablets and drink bleach, called her friends "English slags", and berated her for wearing western clothing. After attacking her with a cricket bat because she took too long on the phone to a friend, he told her: "If I hit you with this bat with my full power then you would be dead".

Judge Richard Mansell decided not to send Bashir to prison though. Instead, the cricketer was given an 18-month suspended sentence, £1000 fine, instructed to attend a "building better relationships" workshop and banned from contacting his ex-wife.

Justice Mansell said his decision was based on two factors: an alleged conditional offer of a contract from county cricket club, Leicestershire if Bashir stayed out of a jail and his ex's vulnerability.

Image: Cavendish Press

He said he was "not convinced she was a vulnerable person" and cited her being "an intelligent woman with a network of friends" as evidence that her life was not in danger.

Bashir's ex-wife has since told the BBC she was "disappointed in the comments which the judge made about my vulnerability".

"I am a confident and strong woman because of what I have suffered. I was suffering for my life but the judge didn’t believe me."

The case has also caused outraged among women's groups and British MPs.

"Everybody has a dynamic risk, I’ve met women who went on to be murdered who had law degrees, who were very eminent business people. There’s no category that domestic violence does not touch. It does not follow class lines, it does not follow race lines, it does not follow age lines."

Leicestershire Cricket Club has since said that no such contract with Bashir exists, and they have never spoken to — nor heard of — the cricketer.